


Girls, Boys, Bots

by graytheglowinggay



Series: BL3 Goes Polyamory: Polyamorous Vault Hunters [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, During Canon, Everyone is Poly Because Vault Hunters, F/F, F/M, Hook-Up, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Titles, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, Multi, Older Man/Younger Woman, Other, Polyamory, Questioning, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Sexual Experimentation, Sexual Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25327921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graytheglowinggay/pseuds/graytheglowinggay
Summary: Moze tries to figure out who she is, with a little help from the other Vault Hunters.
Relationships: Amara/FL4K/Moze/Zane Flynt, Amara/Moze (Borderlands), FL4K/Moze (Borderlands), Moze/Zane Flynt
Series: BL3 Goes Polyamory: Polyamorous Vault Hunters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955251
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Girls, Boys, Bots

Moze didn’t get the chance to be a teenager. The phase of experimentation and figuring out one’s identity was one that she was denied. Seeing the people around her so sure of who they were made her jealous. She was raised with her family’s generations of military legacy breathing on her neck, and she couldn’t go a day without hearing some story of Andreyevna glory. It drove her crazy. She was barely a teenager when she was “encouraged” to enlist in the Vladof Revolutionary Army. She was born to be a soldier, after all.

Moze had no desire to be a hero, but she quickly figured out that the best way out was up the ranks, and so she dedicated herself entirely to her training. An honorable discharge was her goal, and she ignored anything else that might get in the way of that, including friendships with her fellow recruits. Her hard work paid off, and she was assigned to the Ursa Corps, an infantry division that specialized in mechanized warfare. Moze found a purpose in the Ursa Corps and a companion in her Iron Bear mech. It was a beautiful piece of machinery, and she maintained it as best she could. 

Moze fought in battle after battle, conflict after conflict, in the name of the Vladof Corporation. Despite all their talk about being for the revolution and the common man, the executives still sought to line their pockets. She was promoted to Gunner First Class and was told that there were only a few more missions left until she was free to go. This, of course, was a lie, fabricated to give her something to fight harder for. Eventually, there was her last mission, but it didn’t go well. Darzaran Bay was a bloodbath, and Moze was lucky that she made it out alive. She was just happy that she finally had her Iron Bear and no Vladof officers telling her what to do. It certainly helped that, because of how poorly everything went, they thought she was dead.

Moze spent most of her time after Darzaran Bay struggling to afford the equipment she needed to maintain her mech, and there were plenty of things that she had to do during that time that she wasn’t proud of. Eventually, she ended up on Pandora and met up with a band of fellow wanderers, a crew that she ended up closer to than anyone else she ever had.

* * *

Moze would be lying if she said she always 100% believed in the existence of Sirens. She heard the stories about them, of course, tales of tattooed women with incredible powers who were born to unsuspecting families across the galaxy. But she never put all her faith in their existence, and certainly never thought she’d meet one.

When Moze first met Amara, to say that she found the woman impressive would be an understatement. Not only was she a Siren, but she was a brawler of unmatched ability, and Moze was incredibly grateful that they were fighting on the same side. She hardly even needed guns; she could take down an entire army with nothing but her fists. 

Something about that kind of power was alluring to Moze, and she found herself distracted in battle by the things that Amara was doing. She found herself stealing glances at the other woman’s sculpted abdominal muscles that she showed off through her clothing, her powerful biceps and shoulder muscles that could snap someone’s neck without breaking a sweat (and had, on multiple occasions), the way she’d smile before knocking another bandit’s teeth out. It was intoxicating.

She wasn’t unfamiliar with these kinds of feelings, but she’d never allowed herself to truly experience them before. Her other goals always were of a higher priority. But one night, while the Vault Hunters were in Watershed Base, resting up for their trip to Atlas HQ to retrieve the final fragment of the Promethea Vault Key, Moze decided to make something of her attraction. FL4K was busy playing with Mr. Chew so he’d finally go to sleep for the night, and Zane had long since passed out from the drinking he had done with Lorelei, so Moze and Amara were left alone. 

The two of them talked in hushed tones about the things they had seen up to that point, the good and bad they had been through. When she was sure that FL4K had powered off for the night, Moze leaned over and kissed Amara on the cheek. It could have been perfectly described as a stolen kiss, if it weren’t for the fact that Amara almost immediately returned it, this time, on the lips. They fooled around some that night, exploring each others’ bodies with no strings attached. It was new to her, but not unwelcome. They fell asleep with their bodies entangled; if either FL4K or Zane noticed, they didn’t say anything.

* * *

Though the quest for the Promethea Vault ended in tragedy, Eden-6 offered plenty of ways for the Vault Hunters to distract themselves. Between racing around Floodmoor Basin, hunting down saurians, and the various local activities Wainwright Jakobs recommended, they were rarely bored between missions. During these activities, Moze found herself getting closer to Zane Flynt.

The grizzled old operative loved to joke and avoided taking things seriously, but underneath the veneer of humor, he was a different man. One didn’t survive long in the mercenary business without doing some unsavory things, and Zane’s back catalog of jobs was a long and bloody one. He often joked that it was strange for him to be “doing the right thing”, but Moze didn’t see it the same way. She saw how he talked to Ava after Maya’s death, the kindness and softness in his voice when he said, “Lass, it’s time to go”. She wondered if he had children with any of his many husbands and wives scattered around the six galaxies.

Spirits were high after the defeat of GenIVIV, and the Vault Hunters went out for drinks at the Witch’s Peat, which they had recently freed from the clutches of a pair of angry jabbers. Moze wasn’t exactly a lightweight, but she was well and truly drunk. One thing led to another, and before long, the four adventurers were playing Truth or Dare. Moze was unfamiliar with the game, but it didn’t take long to explain. The dares got more and more extreme, and before long, Zane had dared Moze to kiss him. Moze couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol in her system taking charge, or something more, but the kiss she gave the Pandoran mercenary was filthy. There was cheering, not just from Amara and FL4K, but other patrons of the bar who probably had no clue that the man and woman kissing in front of them were Vault Hunters.

After the game had run its course and they returned to Knotty Peak for the night, Moze sought out Zane. She asked him why he dared her to kiss him. He shrugged. Kissing was just a part of Truth or Dare. She asked why he chose her. He said he thought she’d chicken out. She pinned him against the wall and kissed him again. It was a challenge, one which Zane accepted readily. She felt self-conscious about experimenting with someone who had so much more experience than she did (what if she was bad at it?), but Zane was an understanding partner. Moze was just glad that she had confronted him somewhere with a slight amount of privacy.

* * *

Even though she chose to be a Vault Hunter, a job not exactly known for ordinary situations or encounters, Moze was incredibly surprised that she ended up on Nekrotafeyo as part of the plan to stop Tyreen Calypso. The Eridian homeworld was well and truly alien, and Moze never felt at ease while she was on the planet. However, she felt safe whenever she was around FL4K.

FL4K was easily the most cryptic member of the crew, their origins and motives being a complete mystery to everyone else. Despite that, she trusted them almost instantly. It wasn’t their skill with a gun that made Moze feel that way, though, it was their compassion for their pets. She had met heartless people before, and almost all of them shared a disdain for living creatures that they considered to be beneath them. So seeing how much FL4K cared about their pets, how they’d put themself in harm’s way in battle just to revive it where it had fallen, it was heartwarming. Funny how a bot could show more humanity than some of the people she’d fought while a part of the Crimson Raiders.

It was night, and the Vault Hunters were camped on Nekrotafeyo. Much to Moze’s dismay, they had decided to stay on the planet overnight instead of returning to Sanctuary III, because their location was far away from any Fast Travel stations, and returning would be much more trouble than it was worth. Moze couldn’t fall asleep, so she sat on Iron Bear’s back, looking out at the jagged cliffs and canyons that covered the landscape. FL4K walked up beside them and leaned against Iron Bear’s side. Being a bot, they did not need sleep, and only powered off at night as a courtesy to others; a gesture to make them appear more human. The two of them talked, and Moze found the companionship to be an appropriate antidote to her fears.

Kissing a bot was different from kissing a human; FL4K had no lips, and so Moze was the one who did most of the work in that regard. However, FL4K still drew comfort from the contact, and their metal face against her cheek almost felt warm. She got down off Iron Bear’s back and took FL4K by the hand, leading them to a more sheltered spot.

Moze had only ever seen people talk about loving bots as a fetish, something that people did when they were deprived in some way, unable to experience intimacy in any other way. She soon realized that yes, some people only saw bots as a way to be gratified when humans were unwilling or unavailable, but there was so much more to it than that. Moze knew that FL4K experienced pleasure, she could see it in their eye, feel it in their touch. It was a beautiful thing to behold. When they were finished, when she was out-of-breath and vulnerable, she could look up at the stars in the sky and see how truly majestic they were.

* * *

Moze wouldn’t say that she was necessarily in love with any of her fellow Vault Hunters, but she certainly loved them. She loved them as friends, yes, but she also loved to be with them. She loved the way that Amara's hands felt on her hips, the way that Zane’s beard was rough against her neck, the way that FL4K would hum when they found something particularly pleasing. She loved how each of them enabled her to discover how she felt pleasure. She couldn’t simplify what she felt for any of them; it went beyond words like “friendship”, “romance”, or “hook-up”. It was the moments she had spent with each of them, the battles, the laughter, the intimacy. It was the bonds forged between a group of people who had seen and done unforgettable things. But not everything unforgettable was bad. There were some memories Moze didn’t mind carrying.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is another fic that I wrote in a couple of hours. I just Iike writing polyamory and I like the idea of poly Vault Hunters. I don't think there's enough fic out there about experimentation and trying to figure things out, so that's part of why I wanted to write this. The other part is that I feel like I've played enough on each Vault Hunter to know what their personalities are like.


End file.
